We are baby boomers privileged to enjoy our dream of early retirement while traveling full-time. We recently traded our 2005 37' Allegro Bay for a 2015 DRV Tradition fifth wheel being towed by a 2015 Silverado 3500HD Duramax dually. We are in our ninth year of being on the road. We invite you to join us as we explore this amazing country. and navigate the full-time RV lifestyle. Our heartfelt thanks to our soldiers and their families for their sacrifices to ensure our freedom so that we can pursue our dream.

September 08, 2008

Memphis Part I: Botanic Garden and a Trolley Ride

After leaving the Oklahoma City area, our next destination was West Memphis, AR, which is just across the Mississippi River from Memphis, TN. It was a little too far to make in one day, so we stopped at Toad Suck Corps of Engineers Campground near Conway, AR. Actually, we had two nights to spend before the start of our reservations in West Memphis. We made those reservations in West Memphis several weeks in advance because we would be arriving at the start of Labor Day weekend.

Toad Suck has
a fairly high percentage of non-reservable sites, and since we couldn't tell from the website or a satellite view which sites might be suitable for satellite reception, we thought we
would try getting a site without making reservations. We called the day before we planned to arrive,
and they said they thought they would still have a good many
sites available for two only nights. When we arrived, they told us
which sites were available so we unhooked the toad and drove around to
take a look.

We picked the one site that was left that looked like we would have a shot at getting satellite reception. It was nice and long with plenty of privacy. However, we ended up having to pull into the back-in site frontwards in order to have our satellite dish, which in on the rear of our motor home, clear the trees. We had to use both our water hoses and our 30 amp extension cord to reach the utilities, but we were glad we were able to make it work. The photo below shows our site at Toad Suck.

It was nice to be back into nature again, away from parking lots, lights, and interstates. Paul put Molly out before we went to bed the first night, and it was DARK! We could hear the cicadas, katydids, and crickets at night and birds during the day. Toad Suck has paved roads, paved pads, gravel patios, lots of grassy space between sites, and water and electric hookups (some sites have 50 amp). There are a number of sites that have a view of the river and the locks, but only one of those would work for our satellite and that one was taken.

We always
like Corps of Engineers campgrounds because they usually have
generously-sized campsites, are usually located on a river or
lake, and we can stay there for half price with our America the
Beautiful Senior Pass. However, most COE campgrounds, Toad Suck
included, also have lots of trees which is not good for satellite
reception. We did find several COE campgrounds last year crossing
Kansas that didn't have trees, but those are the exception rather than
the rule.

Now, you are
probably wondering where the name Toad Suck came from. We certainly were. Toad Suck is
located on the Arkansas River. A postal route and ferry were established in the area in the
early 1820s. Sometime between 1830 and 1850, a tavern was built on the
western shore of the river. The tavern was frequented by travelers,
riverboat roustabouts, and locals. The tavern patrons were serious
drinkers prompting one traveler to comment, "Those fellows suck at a
bottle 'till they swell up like toads." And that's how a riverside
tavern, a settlement, a ferry, and now a modern lock and dam got the
name Toad Suck.

We spent two quiet days at Toad Suck. Paul did some maintenance around the motor home, and we did a little shopping.

From Toad Suck, we went to West Memphis, AR to Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park. Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park, as the name suggests, is right on the Mississippi River. Their claim to fame is that you can watch all the river traffic pass by right from your campsite. We paid a little extra to get a front-row site so we would have an unobstructed view of the river. The campground has extra-long pull-throughs and full hookups with 50 amp electric. Roads and sites are gravel, except for the sites in the front rows which have concrete pads. There is ample space between sites with well-manicured grass. The photo below shows our site at Tom Sawyer...

...and this was the view of the river from in front of our site.

As you can see from the above photo, there is a lot of exposed riverbank on the opposite shore indicating the river level was quite low. This is normal for late summer. We couldn't help but think about the high waters we experienced in Iowa in the spring and what that must have looked like here in Memphis a week or two later. Spring is about the only time there is any danger of flooding at Tom Sawyer, and they say there are never flash floods. The Mississippi is big enough to absorb any runoff from sudden rains that might occur, and there is ample warning of any flooding coming from farther upstream. We were glad to hear that because hurricane Gustav was in the Caribbean heading for the Gulf Coast about the time we arrived in West Memphis. The exact path was still unknown at that time; but it looked like it was heading toward New Orleans, which is less than 400 miles due south of West Memphis. When we checked in, they said they had a lot of inquiries from campers farther south.

The next morning, we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise and were reminded of the old saying, "red in the morning - sailor's warning."

With possible rainy weather heading our way as a result of the hurricane, we thought we should take advantage of the sunshine so we headed across the river to the Memphis Botanic Garden. Memphis Botanic Garden covers about 96 acres in Audubon Park just east of downtown Memphis. Late August isn't a great time to visit a garden because there isn't much blooming; but it's been a while since we have been to a botanical garden, and Paul was interested in reconnecting with some garden memories.

Visitors to the garden are greeted by this fountain when they step out of the visitor center into the garden.

A short distance from the fountain was a pool with water lilies.

And near the water lily pool was the rose garden where a few varieties were still blooming very nicely.

Memphis Botanic Garden has a very large Japanese serenity garden. The photo below shows one of several stone lanterns with the lake in the background behind the trees.

This Canadian goose on the lake in the Japanese garden was looking for a handout of food. You could buy fish food for the hundreds of huge koi in the lake; but the geese liked the fish food, too.

The lake in the Japanese Garden also has a picturesque bridge.

As we left the Botanic Garden, we stopped for a photo by the parking lot. Paul was fascinated by the huge, elephant ear plant to the left of the photo. He grew elephant ears successfully back when we had a stick house, but was never able to get the leaves to grow bigger than about 18 inches long.

On Labor Day, we headed to downtown to Memphis. A number of the museums are right downtown, and we thought the holiday would be a good time to miss some downtown traffic. We stopped at the visitor center to find the location of several attractions and best places to park only to find out many tourist attractions were closed. They weren't closed because it was Labor Day, but because it was Monday...they are always closed on Mondays so we decided to ride the trolley around the Riverfront Loop.

It only costs $1.00 per person, and it would give us the lay of the land. This time, it was a real trolley, not a bus dressed up to look like a trolley.

There was no narrated tour, but we followed the map we got at the visitor center so we knew where we were.

We decided to get off the trolley at Union Ave. and walk two blocks to the Peabody Hotel. The Peabody is a AAA Four-Diamond hotel in downtown Memphis that is famous for its ducks. They have five mallard ducks that are marched to the fountain in the lobby of the hotel every day. The tradition began back in 1933 when the general manager of the hotel came back empty-handed from a hunting trip. Two friends decided to play a prank and put several ducks into the Italian travertine fountain in the hotel lobby. The reaction of the guests was enthusiastic, and the tradition was born. The photo below shows the Peabody ducks in the fountain.

The five ducks (one drake and four hens) are housed in the "Duck Palace" on the hotel roof. The Duckmaster marches the ducks to the lobby every day at 11:00 AM by way of an elevator, and they are returned to the roof at 5:00 PM. A local farmer raises the ducks for the hotel. The ducks spend only three months at the hotel after which they retire to live out their days on the farm.

Near the end of our trolley ride, we passed the Memphis Pyramid, which was built to symbolically link Memphis, TN, to its namesake in Egypt. The Pyramid is a 32-story, stainless steel, 20,000-seat sports arena and entertainment complex. Built in 1991, the Pyramid, which is owned jointly by the city and the county, is the third largest pyramid in the world behind the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. The Pyramid was the former home of the University of Memphis men's basketball and the Memphis Grizzlies NBA basketball team until both teams left for the newly-built FedEx Forum. Today, except for a few special events, the Pyramid sits mostly idle.

We returned to the motor home and checked up on the status of hurricane Gustav. Fortunately, it seemed to deliver only a glancing blow to New Orleans. Although there was a good bit of damage in the Gulf Coast region, they were spared the devastation caused by Katrina. Almost 400 miles away from Gustav where we were in Memphis, the skies become increasingly cloudy as the outer bands of the storm crept northward. The wind had picked up from a breeze in the morning to 20+ mph wind later in the day and overnight.

With rains coming, we planned to visit some museums. There are so many to choose from. We'll let you know which ones we visited in our next post.